Four Months' Notice: What Next?

It’s March and spring is just around the corner at long last. That also means it is “review” season in many law firms across Canada. The budget is done, the plan for the year is underway and in some firms, the partner compensation process has been completed — phew!

Most firms, particularly the larger ones, provide formal feedback to associates twice a year. Though, typically, the spring review is the most intense.

But what happens when a review proves unfavourable for a colleague in the firm? Terminating a fellow lawyer is arguably one of the most difficult decisions a legal manager can undertake.

As a result, this decision causes stress and loss of
sleep for every managing partner, practice group
leader and professional talent director involved
in the process.

by Karen MacKay, MBA, CHIC
President

Making the decision and
delivering the message is one thing, but
receiving the message is quite another.

If the title of this article caught your eye, you
may have been involved in one of those difficult
meetings. Believe me: whether you are the giver
of the message, or on the receiving end, it is a
stressful time.

The purpose of this commentary is to give the
recently terminated reader who does not have the
benefit of transition support, some ideas as to a
starting point and guidance with the process.

Get Connected with Your Own Priorities

My friend and colleague David Maister told his
MBA graduates in 1982 that

“you can’t decide
what you want from a job until
you’re clear on
what you want from life.”

So, how do you figure
out what you want and need in your next job,
which we all know consumes a big part of your
life?

This is a time to take a step back and give
yourself permission to contemplate your own
priorities. In our experience, if you do not take
the time to get your priorities on the table,
discuss them honestly and candidly with those
who know and love you, and understand how
and why they are important to you, then you may
run the risk of repeating a career mistake.

Inspired by the work done by Mary Lindley
Burton and Richard A. Wedermeyer of the
Harvard Business School Club of New York’s
Career Management Seminar series, our
company has developed a list of priorities. These
include:

Working in a team

Contribution to society

Compensation

Partnership/possibility of partnership

Mentoring and training

Leadership

Future earning potential

Geographic location

Strategic direction of the firm

Influence and power

Intrinsic nature of the work

Time for a personal life

Prestige and status

Professional growth

Security

Firm culture

Spouse or partner

You should organize these priorities into three
groups, the “deal breakers”, the “nice-to-haves”
and the “trade offs”.

An old gentleman once told me that “the human
is the only animal on the planet who will step in
the same hole twice.” This is an opportunity to
be honest with yourself about what is important
in your career. If you don’t take the right course
of action now, you might end up right back
where you started.

Let’s consider an example of a priority: law firm
culture.

Not long ago virtually every firm brochure I read
claimed that the firm in question was a “fullservice”
firm. In the mid-1990s, those fullservice
firms began describing themselves as
“entrepreneurial”. But what does entrepreneurial
mean? Well, in some firms, the term best
describes the client base. Those firms work for
small to mid-sized-owner managed businesses
where the client is the entrepreneur who started
the company. Notwithstanding the description,
some of these firms have a fairly bureaucratic
structure.

In other firms, entrepreneurial describes an
environment where ideas are welcomed and
fostered, where professionals can identify and
pursue a business development opportunity
because the firm’s leaders welcome initiative and
will support people, despite their hunch that the
individual may ultimately fail.

Leaders of those firms are confident in the
benefits of both learning and experience. Those
firms want the professionals to be
entrepreneurial and keep the rules to a minimum.

Ask yourself: where would you feel more
comfortable? Where would you flourish as a
lawyer?

Another example of a priority is geographic
location. To one person the ideal geographic
location is the city in which he or she is currently
situated. Whether it is Vancouver or Halifax, it
may be critically important to find a job in the
city he or she calls home. Why? Perhaps due to a
spouse or partner’s job, or because of extended
family or possibly even due to having teenage
children whom you simply cannot wrench away
from their friends.

Another lawyer may define geographic location
as London or New York. Once again, why?
Well, maybe due to the exposure to huge
transactions in two of the most important
financial markets on the planet.

For whatever reason, there can be as many
different definitions of each of the priorities as
there are people to explore them.

For some, compensation, prestige and status and
opportunities for partnership are among the deal
breakers. For others, it’s the time, intrinsic nature
of the work and contribution to society that are
paramount.

Figure Out What You Want

I cannot stress the importance of this aspect of
the transition process enough. I recall a story
about a lawyer who, after four years of corporate
practice, claimed that his bank account was full
but his soul was empty.

After evaluating and clearly understanding his
priorities, he moved out of private practice and
into a not-for-profit organization. He now has a
workload that would bring a mere mortal to his
knees but an inner happiness that is
immeasurable because of the considerable
contribution he is making to society.

You will be unable to figure out what you want
to do merely by going to interviews. If anything,
you will become more confused than you may be
now. Take some time, step back, gain a
perspective and do your homework.

Figure out what you want and then go after it
with single-minded determination. Nothing
impresses other professionals more than
someone who knows exactly what she wants
from her life.

Luck is when Preparation Meets Opportunity

“So you are telling me that I’m going to work
really hard at this and then by luck I’ll find
myself a new opportunity” said a client. “Yes,
that’s exactly right” was my response.

Opportunities come to people who prepare for
them, listen for them and act upon them.
Whether you are finding a new opportunity or
whether you are developing a business, a plan
comes together when you are prepared and when
you have the initiative to act on an opportunity.

If you are in private practice and your plan is to
change firms, be prepared to:

thoroughly research your target firms.
Determine everything you can about their client
base, their culture, their strategy and direction.
Look for practice groups with gaps around your
year of call. And finally, look for firms that
might need you as much as you need them.

develop a plan for yourself, your practice and
the ways in which you might contribute to your
target firm.

Be Honest with Yourself

There are many reasons for being “in transition”.
In our experience, the individuals who are the
most successful at moving on with their careers
and their lives are those who honestly take
ownership for their part in the decision.

A clear understanding of your strengths and an
even better understanding of your weaknesses
will help you to seek out opportunities that
accentuate your positives and diminish your
negatives.

If, for example, you have amazing organizational
skills, an unbelievable memory and terrific
interpersonal skills, but your drafting is weak,
you might find an opportunity where you are
managing a portfolio of litigation matters in a
legal department.
The document preparation is often completed by
outside counsel, which means your drafting
requirements will be reduced, but your
organizational and communication skills will
shine as you handle the job with ease, confidence
and aplomb.

Become a Valued Alumnus

As you work through your notice period and then
walk out the door of your current firm, you will
be welcomed to its alumni. Firms are now
recognizing that everyone who experiences a
part of his or her professional career within a
firm may become a referral source or even a
client.

From the individual’s perspective, you never
know when you will need some advice, be
conflicted out or be the recipient of a referral
when the firm you are leaving is in the same
situation. Do not burn your bridges.

Keep your friends — retain those relationships
and give them constant care, even as you make
your plans to move on to the “next big thing”.

Our paths cross over and over, especially in the
legal community. First you may be colleagues;
then you are across from each other on a deal; at
some point later you become a client and then
you may be back to being colleagues again on a
not-for-profit board.

When faced with a transition, you will rise in the opinion of your colleagues if you handle your situation with grace, dignity and professionalism.